So, it would seem that i've neglected the poor blog for a while. I've got a couple-few things to mention, but i'm gonna break 'em up into separate posts for thematic reasons.

Ok, so first off: returing from AR - since i was still there at last posting. I must say, i'm loving the macbook & having a computer with a battery life long enough to actually use some of the wifi hotspot around (it gives be 4.5 - 5 hours on a charge - not too shabby).

So, we stayed in AR for a little over a week so sheri could help her mom with her recovery from surgery. Last I heard she's doing alright regarding all that, but did find out she'll need chemo which is upsetting to her. Still, she's doing her best to get through all of this. Sheri's grandma is in the hospital again as of now, so health issues in the family seem to be on a disheartening rise. :( This year's been pretty arduous overall so far, unfortunately...

Partially due to the trip, but mostly due to a startling and irritating lack of inspiration (and not for lack of *hours* of trying), i didn't get very far on this year's RPM. I have most of two songs recorded - and only one of them is actually new (the second is an old song that i decided i'd finally put down). My closet soundbooth does a good job though and it was worth constructing - now if i could only come up with something to record. Erg. I'll have the new stuff put up in the music section after i've finished mastering the second song.

We went to the coffeehouse again a couple weeks back, which was fun. I got to take some pictures and play Wii on a giant projector screen. Good times.

We have VBS (for which i'm slated to do A/V stuff and photography) as well as a trip up to OH coming up this month...as well as some other stuff to be mentioned in the following entry...

Anyway, I think that's about all for this one...

~PS

Well, we're still hanging out in AR. Sheri's mom had her surgery on friday and seems to be recovering fairly well, if a bit slowly. She has her ups and down, but it's my impression she's doing a little better each day. All things considered, I think things are going as well as can be expected, if not exactly as well as we might have hoped.

We're still not sure exactly when we'll be heading back, but our original plan of leaving tomorrow morning has been postponed and it's likely to be thursday at the earliest and it could well be later.

This has all put a bit of damper on my recording project for the month, but real life happens. I did bring my guitar, but haven't had a chance to play it much as being quiet has been necessary for most of the day so far.

Actually, i haven't done much besides play AoE III and Neverwinter Nights. See, I seem to be stuck in a bit of an internet black hole - perhaps mostly due to the massive ice storm that was through this area recently. So... ...I haven't been able to do much work or play on the 'net. I've stopped in at a hardees for dinner once that had an open wifi, and i'm at the house of some friends of sheri's parents now to do some general email checking and work out some minor issues on some projects for work.

Don't think there's much else to report now.

~PS

So today's the first day of february and RPM - sadly, i'm in Erwin for most of the day and can't do much in the way of recording. I *can* however, work on some preliminary stuff now that I have a macbook, which i'll be starting in a bit. 27 more days. Deep breath...

Had two great gaming sessions this weekend. Sadly, one of the games is losing a player. I will admit slightly shrinking that group is not all bad (6 players is a little past my 'ideal'), but we'll miss having Nick around for the next year. The other group had a good time with session #2 last night. I'm enjoying the progressing stories and interactions for both games immensely, each in its own way.

We got to see Bart & Sarah's baby Joe today - he's 9 days old. And quite adorable.

In more serious/troubling news, we discovered this week that a tumor Sheri's mom had removed was malignant and that she'll be having more surgery soon. We're beginning to make some initial preparations for a trip out to AR to be with her and the rest of the family for that, but we're not sure exactly when it will be as yet. We're also a little concerned about the weather, since they've had a really bad ice storm and a large part of the region has been declare a disaster area and is without power and a little short on other provisions.

I think that's everything on the list for now...

~PS

...because if you're being 'paranoid', it means everything's really ok. If everything's *not* ok, you weren't being 'paranoid', you were being 'perceptive'. Funny how that works.

I just got back from the doctor's office. The last couple of days i've been having some minor but strange aches and pains, often in my chest. I'd also long suspected that my blood pressure might be a little higher than it's supposed to be (for a small variety of reasons). Last night I was unable to sleep (at least partly) because my heart felt like it was beating harder than it needed to. Not *faster*, mind you, just like it was pounding too hard - like when you've been working out, except the rate was normal for being at rest, and i wasn't doing anything. I wasn't able to sleep until early this morning (i think around 4am). I'm pretty young for heart trouble still, but this, combined with my other concerns, kind of freaked me out. Plus i've heard of the strange cases of young people having such problems, and that could well be my luck. I wanted to know how concerned i should be.

Anyway, it turns out nothing's wrong. As far as anyone can tell, i'm just having some muscle pain/twitching - probably from sitting at a keyboard all day. As for last night, I was told that that's not abnormal: depending upon a lot of different circumstances, sometimes your heart beat is more pronounced than others - and I'm sure i made it worse in my head due to worry. My blood pressure is great. My blood work is fine (surprisingly, it *didn't* come back as 50% pepsi). My EKG is completely normal. So I got pretty much what i wanted: a second opinion telling me everything was cool and not to worry about it.

Part of the concern might also have stemmed from the fact that as I approach 30, I am becoming more aware of my aging (also psychologically normal). Also, despite the fact I've just been told I'm in good health, i don't feel like i necessarily *should* be. I don't exercise enough, and I don't watch what I eat at all. I've been trying to be better about that more lately, but part of me wouldn't have been terribly surprised if i'd been told i'd done a fair bit of damage to myself over the last 10 years or so just because I haven't made any attempt to be 'healthy'.

So anyway, everything's good and my thought is that if i continue to try to exercise a bit more and eat a little less junk, I ought to remain in good health.

~PS

Well, as of wednesday, Ally has had her vet checkup and shots - she seems to be in great health. We did get some preventative and just-in-case medicine for her and some flea medication.

The vet also said she doesn't think Ally's pregnant - which is something we were concerned about since she's gained some weight lately (which really isn't a bad thing considering how thin she was).

The vet out here at the Good News clinic is really good and really nice - and she and all the techs *loved* Ally - who put up with everything they did with nothing more than a squeak. She also very much enjoyed the cookies they gave her - which she'd never had as far as we know.

She even made a friend - the vet's dog was wandering around the place and tried to play with Ally some while we were getting ready to leave. At first she seemed to be confused by this concept of "play", but she caught on after a bit.

Ally seemed to be in good spirits when we left the vet and was also excited to be home.

Later, Sheri & I went to Petsmart and got her a new collar (the old one was getting ratty), a name tag with our phone number (which was about time) and a brush to get some of the loose fur off of her - which we noticed when we gave her a bath on tuesday.

So I think she should be all set. :-)

~PS

Really.

Seems the old blog has been neglected lately.

Man, I'm exhausted. I have decided that it was probably a bad idea to go walk for nine holes of golf since I slept really, really crappy last night.

Either that, or I'm really out of shape.

Maybe both.

I hope I sleep better tonight since I'm supposed to go out and play some with Joe tomorrow.

I hope I'm not getting sick again, I was freezing last night while I was trying to sleep and I have this nagging off-and-on headache.

Well, time to head out. Think we're heading to the Nameless Lair for some dinner and relaxation.

And probably some mario kart.

~PS

So I haven't written much here lately. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on being sick. Or, at least, on not being well.

It's not that I *feel* bad exactly, I've just been congested for...a good while now. To the point that my ears are stuffed up. Yeah, that's a new one for me. Anyway, I'm taking some stuff now that seems to be helping. Hopefully I'll get rid of this soon.

So anyway...

About the only interesting thing we did this week was on Saturday when we helped Ginger move into her new place: a nice, 70's-ish townhouse a couple miles from her old place. It's a considerable step up. She's pretty excited about it.

We had quite a little party doing it too - Ginger, her parents, Sheri & I, Tony, Mike & Steph and Chris Mak all took part in the event. It was pretty cool to get to hang out with all of them - some of whom I hadn't seen in a while.

During the packing and the loading, we showed Ginger where some of the remaining pirate booty (from Project Pink Pirate - see the Sept 2005 blog, or the We Have Your Keys gallery) was hidden - as we promised. I still can't remember where the last silver one is. We may never know.

The move itself only took about 4.5 hours - pretty good time, I think. After we got all the stuff over to her new place, we had some pizza and unpacked/set up a bunch of stuff to get Ging started with the mammoth task of unpacking. It was all quite enjoyable - even with my annoying cough.

Hmm... Maybe I can blame the fact that I put the futon together wrong on my congestion too...?

~PS

Well, it's been a little while since I've made an entry here, so...

There's not a whole lot to say really, except that I'm about done with two things.

The first being the car problems we keep having. We have decided to go ahead and fix sheri's car - even though it's probably not worth it - just because we can't afford to be without another car right now. We have decided that we need to start looking for something else though. Hopefully something we have to worry about less.

The second thing I'm 'about done' with is my health - or lack thereof. For the last couple weeks now I've been pretty congested and occassionally quite sick. At least thus far I haven't had to cancel anything because of it.

In other news, the hall and the bathroom are almost finished in terms of painting. We've also got some nifty bathroom fixtures (things like towel bars and toilet paper holders) to put up when we're done. That, however, has also been put on hold as the paint fumes certainly won't help my illnesses and may well be part of my problem.

~PS

As of sometime this last weekend, sheri and i have become somewhat sick - though sheri moreso than me. According to her doctor visit yesterday, she has some sort of viral resperatory thing that just needs to do its thing and get out. It is contagious, and i probably have it too - though, as yet, i haven't been nearly so affected as she has. Yearly allergy and sinus problems we tend to have are probably adding to this mish-mash. Lovely.

Sheri has all but lost her voice. It's really kinda funny to hear her talk. When she gets sick, her vocal range picks itself up and moves down a minor 3rd.

Anyway, doc said she could go back to work on thursday if she was feeling better. Hopefully this will be so and we will go ahead with our thanksgiving "plans" - which pretty much involve hanging out here with another friend stuck away from other friends and family this holiday, eating the usual turkey & stuff and most likely playing lan games.

As for me, i'm hoping my body does as good a job fighting it off as it has so far. The only consistent symptoms i've had can just as easily be attributed to allergies - allergies that seemed to kick off the year on saturday when i tried to play Paper Mario 2 at the Lair around ginger's cat for a couple of hours. That didn't work out so well.

(speaking of the furball, i need to go check on him this evening...)

~PS

i find that much of the time, i just don't have anything important to say - not that if i DID have something important to say this would be an ideal place for it...

for the last few weeks or so, i've had the intense urge to write a new song, but everytime i sit down to work on one, i can't come up with anything. This is a relatively rare instance of motivation outweighing inspiration - usually the opposite is more true.

i've also been kinda sick for the last few days. I'm taking a medicine that says i should 'avoid excessive or prolonged exposure to direct sunlight or artificial (?) sunlight'. I'm worried that it's trying to make me into a vampire or something. I wonder if that's a side effect of the medication too...

since i've been sick i've finally finished reading 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' - a very ironic book read very ironically since i only seem to find the time to read completely enjoyable books when in situations in which i cannot completely enjoy them. Douglas Adams would be proud.

~PS

well, i think i'm getting over this thing. we're still debating on whether i should go to the doctor, but i've been feeling progressively better the last few days...and it hasn't been a week yet...so...

ginger went and got me started on Baldur's Gate II - which is destined to waste a good bit of my time for a while... ...or, at least, give me something to do in the evenings...

the weekend was pretty slow - with me being sick and all - but it was relaxing which is what was needed. we did get to go to Dice to play 'Ticket to Ride' last night - that's a fun little board game.

~PS

i think for the first time ever, i called off a game this week because i was sick. ordinarily i probably wouldn't have cared - especially because we play here - but i wouldn't want to give whatever this is to anyone else.

for reasons i'm not entirely sure of, i am finding myself conscious and online before 6am on a saturday, and i don't particularly want to go back to bed...(though i probably will)... ...though the fact that i slept a good deal of yesterday might have something to do with it.

~PS